California wildfire burns 30,000 acres, forces 82,000 to evacuate

(NBC) - A wildfire continued raging through rural communities Wednesday in Southern California, triggering a state of emergency and evacuation orders for more than 82,000 residents in the San Bernardino area.

More than 1,300 firefighters and other emergency workers were battling the Blue Cut fire, which flared early Tuesday about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and spread rapidly along the Cajon Pass. By Wednesday morning, it had burned 30,000 acres, with firefighters unable to contain any of it, officials said.

"It hit hard. It hit fast, with an intensity that we've never seen before," San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mart Hartwig told reporters.

He warned that many families will return home "to nothing."

San Bernardino National Forest spokesman John Miller described the conditions as "explosive."

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County, families fled and Interstate 15 was closed as the blaze grew.

"This moved so fast," said Darren Dalton, 51, who along with his wife and son had to get out of his house in the small town of Wrightwood. "It went from 'have you heard there's a fire?' to 'mandatory evacuation' before you could take it all in. ... Suddenly, it's a ghost town."

Ash fell on motorists from billowing black smoke, while aerial pictures from NBC Los Angeles captured a roadside "firenado" in which swirling gusts of wind sent flames twisting high into the air.

The Red Cross set up shelters for residents forced from their homes.

Shannon Anderson of the Blue Mountain Farms horse ranch in Phelan had to load up and evacuate 40 horses as the fire approached.

Two firefighters were hurt and briefly hospitalized when they became trapped while defending homes and assisting evacuations in the Swarthout Canyon area, the San Bernardino Fire Department said.

The fire was zero percent contained and covered 28 square miles at 11 p.m. (1 a.m. CT) — only 12 hours after it began — according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

John Hockaday, who has penned books about the Cajon Pass and Route 66, wrapped his head in wet rags and held a hose with water from an emptying tank as the fire swept over his property, burned several cars and his mother-in-law's home, his cousin Ron Snow said.

Snow said that he was watching an NBC Los Angeles live stream of the fire as flames surrounded Hockaday's house in Cajon Pass and that he reached out to the newsroom, which got in contact with dispatchers to get rescuers to Hockaday's location in a canyon called Lost Lake.

"He was surrounded by fire," Snow told the station. "Fire crews were dispatched. Now he's safe."

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